Supermarkets

Here in the UK supermarkets play an important role maybe too important. Their importance has come from usurping the local retailers in such a way that more and more local shops are closing down. This I think is a worldwide problem and unfortunately I’m not in a position to be high and mighty as I use them too. It’s a necessity, although I do use local retailers too and we rarely purchase meat from the supermarkets as we now use Smithfields Meat Market. I would recommend this to anyone, all that is needed is a chest freezer and the willingness to spend a £100 or more. Bearing in mind that these supplies could last up to 4 months, of course that depends on the size of the family but either way the prices are well below the local supermarkets.

I’m always moaning about supermarkets but just recently I had another experience which concreted my frustration, more specifically with their greed. We have the four major chains here: Tescos, Morrisons, Sainburys and Asda, a subsidiary of Walmart. Personally I like Sainsburys, like being not the best word prefer might be better, but our area is proliferated with Tescos, more about that later. There are two Sainsburys in the area but both are out of the comfort zone so to go their we have to make an extra effort.

On the day I’m talking of we decided to make the trek to Whitechapel. A walk there and a taxi back. With my back I have to pace myself so we set off slowly up the road. From the moment we entered the gates we could see there was something wrong, the carpark was in a mess, probably because only a portion of it was in use and inside was like a disorganized market. They were renovating the premises and I had prior knowledge of where to go to get what I wanted but nothing was where it should have been. In the end I didn’t get everything I wanted and spent too much money, as usual.

That wasn’t the end of the troubles there though. They have a phone inside for taxis so we headed there and made the call but before we knew what was happening someone had grabbed our trolley and was leading Noel outside for, apparently, the taxi that was waiting. I shouted on Noel to slow down but after the frustration of the shopping Noel was just going with it although he did try to slow down the guy that had his hand on the trolley. We were bundled into the taxi and by this time I was furious, the driver had seen my cane but made no allowances. It didn’t get any better when he pulled up at the door. I was in a fair bit of pain because the days effort were more than it needed to be. With my cane in hand the taxi driver opened the boot of his car and tried to shove the bags into my arms while Noel tried to pay him. Not only did he shove them at me but he let go off them quickly and they nearly came crashing to the ground. I had to struggle with the bags because if I hadn’t off all those bottles and jars would of been smashed to smithereens.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that someone with a cane can’t handle heavy bags and that’s where the argument started.

I said “Can’t you slow down!”

And he looked at me like I wasn’t there.

Noel says “My brother is talking to you.”

Then it went downhill from there. In the end he got in his car and shouted to us to go do something to ourselves and we returned the favor. Not our best moment.

It was only when we got indoors that we started to piece together what actually happened:

The supermarket wouldn’t close it’s doors to renovate. Instead they preferred to continue in chaos which might be somewhat fine for the able bodied members of the community but for the lesser abled it was a nightmare.

The taxi driver was what the Americans would call a “Gypsy Cab!”. We assumed that he was the Taxi we called for but to be realistic they were never that quick and his reason for rushing was so he could get us off site before the real taxi guy showed up. All this was relatable to the chaos in the supermarket because out of all the times we’ve been up there this has never happened. Usually the only cabs available were the ones recommended by the supermarket but with the chaos all these other cabs were gathering round the gates.

We were disgusted. The supermarket obviously could not deal with the chaos but preferred to stay open and let things run to the dogs for the bucks, as they say.

The afore mentioned story is more of a direct and current aspect of their greed but there is so much more, far too much to be mentioned here but I will mention a few and something a little more obscure.

The most recent is an issue the Competition Commission has had with the stores I mentioned. The way that these stores monopolize the areas and by doing so deny the fair competition that are so often referred to in their adverts. Such as the referrances to being cheaper than another store, another store that can’t be found in the area because not only have they built their store but in many cases they have bought up the only other land that could be used for the competition. This is land they own but don’t develop and the only reason for doing this is to prevent competition.

Two of the major chains were also done for price fixing. Sainsburys and Asda were found to have price fixed dairy products estimated to cost the consumer £270 million. They have agreed to pay £116 million in fines and the other two are still under investigation. This is only what they have been caught doing.

There are other issues too in particular the effect on the local economy and despite homely claims in advertising the only true homelyness is that which comes from the neighborhood shops. Those that are frequented everyday with people that know my name or at the very least I’m on good nodding terms with. I’m not sure enough people realize what will be lost if all these shops go under.

There is a good documentary about all this from an American perspective and that is ‘Walmart, The High Cost of Low Prices’ although their policies and actions stretch globally. It’s not to say that there isn’t a way for both entities to survive but I think greed turns these chains into monsters only interested in the bottom line and prepared to destroy a community in order to make a buck.

There are more responsible supermarkets like Waitrose and the Spar which seem to be more interested in the community. Waitrose sources all there fresh produce from within 30 miles of their stores and the Spar is the standard in the smaller communities. To me they exist with the potential to aid and not hinder and I wouldn’t want to make them all out to be bad guys. I even remember years ago in Cambridge Massachusetts there was the Star Market. Their fair trade policies I always thought would be hard to beat, for example when they said buy two big bags of chips for $2 but in many other stores one bag would be $1.50 so the only way to make the saving would be to buy two bags. Instead the Star Market split the deal so you could actually buy one bag for $1 and they used another deal on items priced in a sale, if an item had the old price stickers on it then you got it for free. I must admit we may of overused that one, often searching the shelves for old sale items but these deals seemed fair to me and I never had a problem finding someone in charge to talk to if I had a problem. Today in most of the major chains I mentioned I’ve either been unable to find a manager or someone has said “I’m in charge!” when they are obviously not and I have only come away more frustrated at attempts to gain a resolution to my problem.

At least I can say I have done something to stop their stranglehold on certain items by buying the majority of my meat at the Smithfield Meat Market. Despite the size of the place it does have a homely feel and even though we only go there every three or four months there are already people up there who acknowledge us. The savings too are phenomenal as long as you are prepared to buy in bulk.

I have another small issue with supermarkets though maybe not that trivial and that is there contribution to obesity. I believe obesity is a problem though I’m not sure the governments way of tackling the problem is right. I’m not even sure the government should be tackling it. In some ways they are only marginalizing the obese. The supermarkets contribute by placing items in areas where they know they can’t be resisted and all the mention of healthier choice they still make most of their money of processed foods like Pizza, Burgers and Fried Chicken. Besides the guidelines for healthier choice are confusing for example they like to say a certain biscuit only contains one gram of fat, per biscuit that is. Like the placement of the word ‘only’ means anything, one gram of fat is still a lot in anybody’s book.

They also contribute by forcing everyone to bulk buy. When a weeks worth of shopping turns into four days I know I’m eating too much. Whereas if I shopped locally I would only buy what I need, therefore removing some of the temptation although this mostly applies to stocking up on processed foods. This may only be me but I don’t think so. My fridge is definitely not my friend. I know everyone says “Resist!” but it’s hard and the supermarket chains don’t make it any easier. So many times I have gone into the supermarket for only a few items and come out with so much stuff I don’t need.

I’ve had my gripe now and I feel better for it but I do wish these supermarkets would act like they are part of the community. At least that would be a start.